| SEASON
SUMMARY:
Greg Dreiling found himself just a tad
nervous when the Wichita State Shockers, his former team, visited Allen
Fieldhouse on Feb. 5, 1984. “I
was about ready to throw up,” Dreiling told the Kansan.
But he relaxed during the game, despite the jeers of WSU fans in the
crowd, and scored 14 points to help KU to a 79-69 victory.
A furor erupted on campus in February 1984
when the Kansan reported that Brown had accompanied Cedric Hunter to visit a
history professor, David Katzman. Katzman
said Brown tried to get him to raise Hunter’s failing grade in his American
History class. Brown said he only
went along for moral support and out of a responsibility to his player. Hunter did fail the course and was ruled academically
ineligible for the spring semester.
Things turned downright ugly when Wayman
Tisdale and the eighth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners traveled to Lawrence on Feb. 22,
1984. Calvin Thompson capped a
furious second-half rally by hitting a 30-foot shot at the buzzer to send the
game to overtime. But the Sooners
romped in the extra period, outscoring KU 18-8 and winning 92-82 to clinch the
Big Eight title. The KU crowd
showered the court with debris when OU coach Billy Tubbs called time out late in
the overtime to let his players gloat. Brown
went to the microphone to plead with the crowd:
“Let’s show a little sportsmanship.
They deserve the game. Let’s
cut it out.” But things only got
worse, When the game ended, the
Sooners cut down the nets to celebrate their crown, and the fans threw more
debris. On his way off the floor,
OU’s David Johnson and three KU fans got into a gist-fight that ended quickly.
“They were throwing things at us, so we
said after the game that we were going to show ‘em who’s number one,”
Sooner guard Jan Pannell said in the Kansan.
“If we ever get the opportunity to stick our hand up or stick our
finger up and say ‘We’re number one,’ we are going to do it.”
The Jayhawks visited Manhattan, Kan., on
Feb. 25, 1984, looking to clinch second place in the Big Eight, which would be
their highest finish since 1978. But
it took a miracle to pull it off in front of 11,220 fans at Ahearn Fieldhouse.
KU had gone to a stall game with three minutes remaining to try to pull
K-State out of a sagging zone that had bothered the Jayhawks all night.
The Wildcats, led by Ton Alfaro’s 23 points, had led by as many as five
points late.
But with the score tied 61-61 and time
running out, KU’s Mark Turgeon passed the ball to Carl Henry, who was 12 feet
down the baseline, behind the basket, with K-State’s Eddie Elder in his face.
Henry, who said afterward that he couldn’t even see the basket from
that angle, let loose a shot that went through with three seconds remaining, and
Ku won 63-61. It wasn’t the shot
Brown wanted KU to take: “I don’t think any coach designs a perfect shot,”
Brown said. “But the right guy
mad the right pass to the right player … and it went in.
That’s perfect enough.”
After defeating Oklahoma State in Lawrence
in the first round of the Big Eight Tourney (the top four seeds played at home
sites in the first round from 1977 to 1985), Ku met Kansas State in the
semifinals at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on March 9.
The Jayhawks “held” K-State’s Tommy Alfaro to 18 points, and Ron
Kellogg was the defensive hero for a change, taking care of Alfaro when KU put
on a Box-and-one defense in the second half.
Carl Henry and Calvin Thompson led KU’s offense with 16 points each,
and Greg Dreiling added 14 to help give KU a 70-59 victory and set up a rematch
with Oklahoma in the tourney final.
Kellogg resumed his more accustomed role as
an offensive standout against the Sooners when he hit a 15-foot jumper with 40
seconds remaining to give KU a 79-78 win over OU in the final.
The win gave KU the Big Eight’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament,
although the Jayhawks, with 20 wins, were generally expected to receive an
at-large bid. Carl henry scored 30
points as KU held All-American Wayman Tisdale to 17 points, 10 below his
average.
The Jayhawks finally believed in themselves
after the OU win, Brown said, and he was hoping they would run with that
confidence in the NCAA Tournament. KU
was a No. 5 seed in the Midwest Regional in Lincoln, Neb.
The Jayhawks met Alcorn State in the
first-round game, a contest in which KU trailed for 38 minutes and 38 seconds.
At that point, Kellogg followed his own missed shot to put Ku ahead
55-54. But Aaron Brandon, who led
Alcorn State with 18 points, hit a long jumper, with just under a minute to go
to put the Jayhawks back in a 56-55 hole. KU
worked for a good last shot, and Kellogg tried a baseline jumper that missed.
But Henry’s shot off the miss with 12 seconds left put KU ahead 57-56.
Alcorn State had three shots in the last nine seconds, but two missed and
Kelly Knight blocked what seemed like an easy layup by Alcorn State’s Davie
Claybon at the buzzer, giving KU the win and a second-round date with Wake
Forest.
KU ran into a rugged 19th ranked
Wake Forest team, and the inside game of Anthony Teachey and Kenny Green was too
much for the Jayhawks as the fell 69-59. Teachey
dominated the boards, grabbing 15 rebounds as the Demon Deacons outrebounded KU
34-17. And Green scored most of his
20 points inside. Four Ku players
hit double figures: Knight with 12
points, Thompson with 11, Dreiling and Henry each with 10.
Brown used the team’s annual basketball
banquet after the 1983-84 season to take a few jabs at those who said he
wouldn’t stay long: “I haven’t been to one of these banquests in a
while,” Brown said. “I guess I
haven’t stayed around long enough. I
told my wife that we’ve stayed here four season – winter, summer, spring and
fall.”
Source:
The Crimson & Blue Handbook, pages 88-91.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The
1983-84 season was Larry Brown’s first as KU’s head coach, taking over a
team consisting almost entirely of holdovers from Ted Owens ’83 team which
went a dismal 13-16.
Seniors
Carl Henry, a 6’5 F/G, and Kelly Knight, a 6’8 F/C were the stars, leading
the Jayhawks to a 22-10 record and the second round of the NCAAs.
The supporting starters were all underclassmen, including sophomores Greg
Dreiling, a 7’1 C, and 6’5 F/G Calvin Thompson, and freshman guard 5’10
Mark Turgeon. Cedric Hunter, a 6’0 freshman guard, started eight games
early, but was ineligible the second semester and 6’8 sophomore Kerry Boagni
started six games, but transferred to Cal. State the 2nd semester.
The
season started with a 91-76 loss to Houston’s Akeem Olajuwon and the Phi
Slamma Jamma fraternity, followed by another loss four games later to #1
Kentucky. After that, the team
improved steadily, finishing 2nd in the Big 8 to Oklahoma, with a 9-5
conference record. They then took
the post-season conference tournament, and beat Alcorn State in the NCAA’s
before losing 59-69 to Wake Forest.
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